Amongst The Stars
by Tittamiire
Summary: While they're walking at night on a different planet Teal'c tries a new perspective.


Colonel O'Neill didn't appear to like walking at night. Teal'c could see the extra tension in how he held himself, even though he was only a silhouette against the night ahead of both Sam and Daniel. However, what he suspected was that the Colonel didn't actually mind the night, the dark or anything that might go bump in it. Rather, it was that he was preoccupied with why they were walking at night. Too often, he must have travelled at night out of deadly necessity, because he had been on the run in enemy territory, or doing something dangerous that he would never talk about, but that Teal'c could unfortunately imagine. This nighttime walk was mercifully innocuous. This planet had higher UV radiation compared to earth and they'd travelled at night during this mission purely for that reason. The planet was desolate and lacked vegetation, making the horizon distant and the sky very large. The Stargate lurked in the distance as a black shape against the sky and the dirt. Evidence suggested (according to Sam anyway and Teal'c was inclined to accept her judgement on the matter) that this planet hadn't always been like this and a relatively recent event had altered the planet's orbit and its atmospheric make up. The increase in UV radiation and altered climate had killed off the plant and animal life. There had been ruins and rocks to make the trip worthwhile and it was safe, as long as they travelled during the planet's night.

Unfortunately, the systems binary suns curtailed the night and that had meant many hours of waiting before they could set off towards home. Sam and Daniel had enjoyed themselves at the ruins though. Sam had been merrily swept up in Daniel's enthusiasm and played the role of the willing lab partner. Teal'c had read the ancient Goa'uld dialect that covered the pillars as best as he could, but he hadn't discovered anything useful as much as he had welcomed the exercise.

Daniel didn't like walking at night either. He walked with his head in the clouds, even on a beautifully clear and starry skied night such as this one his head was stuck in the clouds of some world, somewhere else. Teal'c didn't even pretend to understand the universe that went on constantly in Daniel's mind. The consequence was that, at least in this world, he had a tendency to trip. The dark didn't help that. Daniel walked with his head bent and concentrated on the rocks and bumps under his feet. They did have night vision goggles with them, but because of the bright sky and the light coloured dirt they could see more without them.

Sam looked at the stars. She walked with her face upturned to the darkness above her and seemed to count the innumerable spots of light. Years of practice had taught her feet to take care of themselves and right now, silhouetted by the light of two moons and the multitude of stars, she appeared as a disconcerting mix of wide-eyed child and consummate warrior.

Teal'c was a quiet and sure-footed behind her. He glanced up at the stars as they walked, wondering what she was looking at up there. He knew of Sam's life long ambition to be an astronaut and to visit space, but right now, she gazed at the sky with something approaching reverence.

"What do stars mean to Jaffa?" She asked the question suddenly over her shoulder and Teal'c was unprepared. He kept walking, but thought for a while to come up with an answer.

"We travelled to the stars and amongst the stars. I was trained to fight over the planets that orbited the stars we could see. The light in the night sky above us always reminded us of our god, our duty and our slavery. After the death of my father I directed much anger at the stars in the sky."

The silence flooded back after he had finished speaking as his team mates absorbed his words.

"There is a great deal of earth mythology that attempts to explain the night sky," Daniel contributed. "We didn't know what they were until fairly recently." He sounded almost apologetic for humanity's ignorance. Teal'c envied that innocent lack of knowledge.

Daniel went on, "The attempted explanations were varied and imaginative. Some thought they were the souls of our ancestors, others that they were angels put there by God. The Greeks thought that the constellations were great animals parading across the sky. We've always used them to navigate by and, because of that, they've always represented hope. Common superstition is that they grant wishes."

Teal'c stopped and looked up at the stars. Sam stopped once she realised he had and he could feel her watching him. Colonel O'Neill, at the head of their group, stopped too and Daniel nearly walked into him. He stopped and looked at the stars too, tilting his boonie back to see them better.

"After my mom died I imagined she was looking down at me from the stars. Even though I knew they were just giant atom smashing machines light years away it helped her feel less gone to imagine she was up there. I'd always been fascinated with the stars and I felt less lonely at night," Sam explained. She too tilted her face to the sky, possibly to avoid looking at the men around her.

Daniel nodded understandingly, "Old Uncle Nick pointed to the stars the night after my parent's funeral and told me my parents would always be watching down on me from heaven. I didn't tell him that my upbringing to that point had featured religion only as a cultural concept."

An odd smile played across Colonel O'Neill's face, "I was back home from college for the moon landing and I watched it sitting on the floor of my Grandpa's front room and while those images were on the screen it felt like we could do anything. It might only have been the moon, but I knew that the rest of space wasn't far away." He looked at their surroundings and then shrugged, "I was right."

Teal'c looked up to the stars again. He couldn't see mythical creatures, he couldn't see dead loved ones looking down on him, and he couldn't see anything that would grant wishes up there. However, when he looked down again, he could see hope in his team mates faces. Here was yet another Tau'ri dream born out of a stubborn kind of ignorance that they were so good at, but it was a beautiful dream of infinite possibilities and potential.

He nodded to his team mates, "Fascinating."

Colonel O'Neill gave a wave of his hand to signal that they should move on towards the Stargate if they wanted to get home before dawn.

"Besides," Sam went on. "The light from stars take so long to reach Chulak that you weren't looking at the stars you would be fighting amongst, those stars were long gone. You were looking at the light of stars that shone from a time before the Goa'uld."

Teal'c glanced skyward again, that sounded better. He could see a snapshot of a time before the Goa'uld and he could pretend it was a time without slavery, tyranny and false gods. One day maybe the light of Chulak's star would reach a planet where the Goa'uld were long forgotten and a Jaffa nation ruled itself, free from tyranny and oppression.

"Second star on the right and straight on 'til morning," Colonel O'Neill added unexpectedly from ahead of them and pointed ahead to the Stargate. A particularly bright star hung low on the horizon directly above the dark silhouette of the Stargate and winked invitingly. Sam grinned back at Teal'c briefly and then continued walking on, her face still upturned to the sky and her step even and confident.


End file.
